Babys obessesion with the 3 B's- blankets, binkies, and breasts, how to break the habits.

Addictions are hard to break no matter the age, but age can be key when it comes to baby addictions as is the case with binkies. They say at 9-10 months old, babies have a lapse in their need for oral stimulation. This I found to be absolutely true. I had a baby completely dependent on a binky, he had a broken collar bone and there for as a young infant drew to constant sucking for some satisfaction. When he turned 9 months, I started removing the binky from his mouth at night and hiding it in the morning till he asked for it. As I tried to keep him occupied over the next few days not to think of it, then eventually he stopped asking for it. It also helps to replace it with small munchies, like the rice wafers for example.

Blankets can be a really tricky as well. Some babies become more and more dependant on only 1 blanket and to take it away for washing can be 3 hours of torture for both you and the baby. The trick here is to make or find a similar blanket to the one they are attached to. What is it about that blanket, the material, the color, the size or the edging?  I found the key for my son was not the material the blanket was made of nor the color but the outside edging. He was obsessed with the silk ribbon around the blanket’s edges. So I made another one as did my mother in law and my sister in law gave us one. This was awesome; soon I got my son to appreciate all types of “babies” as he calls them. Most any will do however sometimes late at night when he awakes he still cries for one with the silk edging, but at least I have 4 options, so one can always be found clean and ready to go.

Getting baby off of the breast can defiantly be a killer. I know a women who is still breast feeding her first  baby and after becoming pregnant again, having the second baby now the infant and toddler fight over the milk. There are a lot of techniques to getting your baby off of the breast. Now if you aren’t hard up you can try to mix half and half formula with breast milk if under 1 or real milk if over 1 years old. Or get the child to “tough it out” The theory here is eventually the baby will get hungry enough, but if you have a weak heart and a stubborn baby then you might have to go to extreme measures. My child refused anything but the breast so much that he even stopped eating solids at 15 months. A month prior I went out of town for work and we figured our baby would tough it out, after 3 full days with nothing to eat or drink but a few sips of water I came home to a little breast pig he wouldn’t leave me alone for 5 days he would not even leave my side and wanted milk every 30 mins. So finally I did what I had to- I poured a bottle of milk, added 1 tablespoon of sugar and nuked it for 40 seconds shook it up and my baby thought he was having candy. I later found out from my doctor that breast milk is much sweeter then cow’s milk, having never tasting breast milk, I had no idea. After 2 week of having my baby drink sweetened milk this way I cut it down to 2 teaspoons then cut it in half ever week until there was no point in adding the sugar at all. He has been drinking milk from a bottle ever since. Now I just have to figure out how and when to get him off the bottle. Wish me luck and I’m sure there will be a post about that later.